EARLY N.Z. LETTERS FOR AUCTION

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30897, 2 November 1965, Page 12

EARLY N.Z. LETTERS FOR AUCTION

(London Correspondent of “The Press”) LONDON, Oct. 27. Letters written by William Nihill, one of the young student missionaries who accompanied Bishop G. A. Selwyn, the first bishop of New Zealand, when he sailed to take up his appointment at the end of 1841, are to be sold at Sotheby’s,' the London auction house, on Tuesday, November 2, in a sale of valuable printed books and autograph letters. There are in the collection 20 long letters written to his family in England between 1841 and 1854. The series begins with three letters written on Nihill's voyage to New Zealand and includes other letters written from Waimate, “Bishop’s Auckland,” and the Isle of Mare in the Pacific, as well as a letter written in the name of Nihill’s baby daughter. A representative for Sotheby’s said that “Bishop’s Auckland” had puzzled some New

Zealanders whom they had approached in London, including the library staff at New Zealand House. It was presumed that this was an early name for Auckland. The letters from “Bishop's Auckland” were written in St. John's College. Bishop Selwyn's diocese, which he extended to include the Pacific Islands, was one of the earliest colonial sees organised by tihe Church of England, and his government of it greatly influenced the future development of the colonial church. Nihill’s letters contain many references to Bishop Selwyn, who evidently took a close interest in the young and promising missionary. They give vivid and detailed accounts of the day-to-day life in the colony and the progress of the mission, describing the school for natives which Nihill was superintending, and his relations with various Maoris and the development of the printing press he was running. The series contains several long journal letters, covering the period December 21, 1849, to January 9, 1850. One is entitled “Journal of a Trip to Tauranga, The Lakes and the Waikato written for dear Mamma in the hopes that it will give her an idea of what travelling in New Zealand is like.”

After Nihill was ordained he was given a parish on the Isle of Mare, and a letter from there written in 1852 contains an unusual account of his first impressions of the island and the work on which he was embarking. He died prematurely on the Isle of Mare in April, 1855.